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For a short period in the Second World War, the American battleship U.S.S. South Dakota, sometimes called Old Nameless, was shifted from the Pacific Ocean to the North Atlantic and seconded to the Home Fleet of the Royal Navy. Around this time the German battleship Tirpitz, sister-ship to the more famous Bismarck, was in Norway sheltering in the country's many fjords. British and Allied military leaders considered her extremely dangerous, and a risk to shipping. They wanted to see her drawn out and sunk on the open sea.

U.S.S. South Dakota was the lead ship of the South Dakota class of battleships, immediate predecessors and close cousins to the Iowa class. Fast and heavily armed, she had seen much action before in the Pacific against the Imperial Japanese Navy, and had a battle hardened captain and crew. She would go on to be one of the most decorated U.S. battleships of the entire conflict. Because of her credentials and proven record, the Admiralty made her the focus of their efforts against the German battleship, and over several months she made numerous aggressive feints intended to draw Tirpitz out to battle.

Nothing worked, and the German battleship remained ensconced in the fjords of Norway until sunk by other means. South Dakota finished the North Atlantic tour, returned home, and was then deployed for a second time to do battle with the Japanese in the Pacific, eventually becoming the first U.S. battleship to fire on the Japanese homeland, among other distinctions.

My question is, what if the feints hadn't failed? What if, one day, the Germans had decided to come out and fight?
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